Take Me Back

A house is demolished in Salem. One of the beautiful old ones, aqua-green paint along the window frames, a white house, a porch, a sun room. Lots of plum trees. An old woman lived there, I saw that often in season she sold plums from baskets on the front porch.

The house has been empty awhile. A credit union is next door, with three drive-through lanes. A woman's domestic violence shelter is on the other side. Across the street is a large government building labeled "Employment".

The neighborhood has become too civilized for old houses with plum trees. For residents.

Though there are still some on the next block over. They rent out alley parking spots to people like me.

Seasons fade. Thursday is the last day for the vacant lot along State Street that sells topiaries and other quite interesting potted plants.

Leaves throw themselves off a one-story strip mall building of offices, landing in organized piles. Ah! So this is when dried old leaves from the prior season (FY 2009 vintage) finally jump. I have always wondered that.

This is also the season where ladders like to be seen. I saw half a dozen today, propped against various houses. Not a person in sight.

What else fades. If this was Facebook (tm), I would take a poll to get a long list of everyone's ideas.

Summer, of course, fades. The lists of fiction I didn't read (but, I did get started reading, linearly, the "1001 Books to Read Before You Die", that was fun). Dreams of selling the house - a lost cause, for now.

A new house, back in the city, with plum trees in the yard. Faded but not forgotten. Next year for sure.

Life inside Salem

Life inside Salem today, deep inside one of those marble ediface buildings (only I think ours, dating to the 70's is actually concrete, to save money no doubt over the Vermont marble used on some)..

It is take and grab day. No not as in the "grab and go" deli in the capitol, but when offices move, all the "surplus" stuff is lurking around in the halls, in the basement. The guy from the front desk who shall remain nameless showed me the stores. Wow, like Christmas! I found some choice parcels. Was it like Christmas, or was it more like shoplifting? Not sure, but it was fun, and in plain sight of the facilities folks too (which sort of took some of the fun out of it).

I get what a "non load bearing wall" means. OK so I heard that term on "Sleepless in Seattle", which is not exactly This Old House as far as learning construction terms. But in my old office they built walls in like 1/2 day. Metal studs (not the construction dudes, but the wall things), fill them with very thick looking insulation (it is labeled thermal and sound insulating, and - is formadehyde free too!). Then I believe they do put sheet rock over this. It is all very quick and presto changeo you have instant walls. I had no idea. But needless to say - these are *not* load bearing walls.

We have freed more parking spaces for patrons (customers? clients? claimants?), by kicking out the state employees that used to park there. Let them eat cake someplace else. Free the parking spaces and they will come! Well, I have hardly seen anyone park there -never ever more than 2 cars at one time. Maybe the word is not yet out.

Several of us in our newly "restacked" office now look out onto a lovely terrace (and closely looking might see the capitol, though for me a fir tree will, in any season, block this view, which is probably as it should be, more on that in a later post no doubt since I will be staring at it for a very very long time). So instead of facing a musty cobwebby terrace, or for some who were previously landlocked, we now face this terrace with potted trees and everything. My friend thinks I am stepping up, well maybe, just a different view. But I do understand my colleague's view on watching the trees and spacing out. When the trees are moving as when fall and rain moves in they captivate me.

I'm sure you could hypnotize state workers to do your bidding if you could find the right cypher sequence to tgigger the desired behavior.

Maybe the next Gov will need this? Or, maybe a project for future NSA cryptographers who may be reading?

On Person One Idea

Republican candidate for Governor Dudley & Zero Based Budgeting, against the entrenched constituency groups.

Is this David vs. Goliath, or will he amass armies to his side in the name of "fiscal discipline for the State of Oregon"?

Well it was fun to think about ZBB as a public administration student. Refreshing, almost. Compared with looking at the massive Washington County budget, and deciding where to make 10% cuts and how to implement the changes and still carry out mandated programs - like collecting property tax.

Or examining the CAFR (Consolidated Annual Financial Report) of Metro, the regional government, which was enlightening really. Enterprise operations such as the Zoo or the Expo center "share" in taxes collected by Metro as a taxing district. Not truly enterprise operations after all (that was in 2003 - maybe things are different now?)

But this is reality, not a student exercise. Can Mr. Dudley take a clean sheet of paper and build a state budget from the ground up?

I am skeptical. For starters, does he even know the mandates state government is bound by - both in terms of state law and also federal law? Um, if you forget to include some things, like say paying matching funds for Medicaid, will the feds forget to fund us?

Is it even possible to do this?

I will watch the rental ads in Salem. I would expect there to be influence peddlers of all stripes descending on the Gov come January. Right now the horse race is 50/50. So there may be groups making "donations" to both sides. As a down payment. Space could be at a premium in Salem. No my cubicle is not for rent!

... But wait - I remember a discussion with our Deputy Director about entrepreneurial government. Maybe I could rent it out, auction it even, online (social media?!). Since from 5pm to 8am I am not occupying it.

Secrets from inside the State Capitol

(a photo gallery)
Peaceful basement plaques in honor of groups past. And secret gardens you can only get to if you are able to get back in (not for me).

1935 Special Session declaration of the new capitol building, since the old one burned down - pictures of this are in the Cafe in the basement. So -- special sessions *can* accomplish something. The building was opened to the public in 1938.

Buildings have memories. Even the ground has memory of what was there before.

Marble-lined hallways. Silence of time "between sessions".

Running fountains are a joy for kids of all ages. A new espresso purveyor with a new umbrella.

The halls, waiting to envelop a new governor and his administration in 5.5 months' time. And the same lobbyist administration.